branching off

History of Palestine

The History of Palestine is the account of events in the greater geographic area in the Southern Levant known as Palestine, which includes not just the West Bank and Gaza but also the territory of the State of Israel. Historically "Palestine" referred to a larger area, including parts of Jordan and Syria, more or less approximating the ancient Jewish Judean kingdom that was destroyed by the Romans and then renamed. The name "Palestine," in the form of the Greek toponym Palaistinê (Παλαιστίνη) is derived from the Greek "Philistia" and is recorded in the work of the Ionian historian Herodotus, circa the 5th century BCE. He uses it to denote all of the coastal land of the Mediterranean Sea, including Phoenicia, down to Egypt. The term was first officially used to describe all the Land of Israel after the third Jewish rebellion, Bar Kokhba revolt had failed to win freedom from Roman domination of the Hebrew nation. The Romans changed the region's name from Israel/Judea in order to historically disconnect the Jews from their land as punishment for their rebellion against Roman imperialism. An attempt was also made to re-name Jerusalem, to Aelia Capitolina, but this did not by and large succeed throughout history.

However, the name for the non-Semitic Philistines was already in existence in the Hebrew Bible.

The Hebrew word Filastin (פלסטין) appears in the Hebrew Bible in reference to this non-Semite group whose origin was in the region of Greece. The Philistines became settlers along the Mediterranean, adjacent to the Jewish nation.

The Arabic word Filastin has been used to refer to the region since medieval Arab geographers adopted the Greek name. The appellative "Filastini" (فلسطيني), also derived from the Latinized term Palaestina (Παλαιστίνη), made appearances in Arabic dating to the 7th century CE.

For more on the use of the term "Palestine", see Boundaries and name of the region of Palestine. For archaeology in this region, see Archaeology of Israel. The History of Palestine generally covers a different area than historical Israel in that it applies only to the area of the coastal strip from Gaza to Ekron, considered part of the area of the Philistines, as well as the Wadi Arabah as far as Eilath, historically part of Edom, and does not include those areas trans-Jordan considered part of Israelite Gilead.

Prehistoric Period

The MousterianNeanderthals were the earliest inhabitants of the area known to archaeologists, and have been dated to c. 200,000 BCE. The first anatomically modern humans to live in the area were the Kebarans (conventionally c. 18,000 - 10,500 BCE, but recent paleoanthropological evidence suggests that Kebarans may have arrived as early as 75,000 BCE and shared the region with the Neanderthals for millennia before the latter died out).

They were followed by the Natufian culture (c. 10,500 BCE - 8500 BCE). (This and the other prehistoric cultures are named after archaeological sites, in the absence of any indication of what they called themselves.)--

Ancient Near East

The area's location at the center of routes linking three continents made it the meeting place for religious and cultural influences from Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor. It was also the natural battleground for the great powers of the region and subject to domination by adjacent empires.

Canaanite Period (Bronze Age) 3300–1200 BCE

The use of the term aCanaanite can be confusing. Archaeologists use it to refer to a long period of time (the entire Bronze Age) and a wide geographical region (ranging from modern Israel to the entire Levant). Thus all of the people in this time and place can be called Canaanites. The Canaanites proper are thought to have been a smaller ethnic group radiating out of Palestine and their presence is mentioned in the Bible and Ancient Egyptian texts.

Early Canaanite Period (Early Bronze Age) 3300–2300 BCE

There is cultural continuity within the local Semitic-speaking culture from the previous Chalcolithic Period, but now also intermingling with outside influences. The settlement patterns of this Period are still a matter of "guesswork". Some archaeologists suggest a group from the Arabian Peninsula (who trade with Mesopotamia) settled among the indigenous peoples who had been there since the original Semitic emigration from Africa. Some archaeologists suggest a group from Syria. Other archaeologists suggest the cultural developments are indigenous, and the outside influences result from trade. Of course, with trade routes come at least some immigration.

Middle Canaanite Period (Middle Bronze Age) 2300-1550 BCE

Late Canaanite Period (Late Bronze Age) 1550–1200 BCE

During the Late Canaanite Period (Late Bronze Age), the emerging Israelites are part of Canaanite culture in language and customs. They are virtually indistinguishable from their neighbors. Archaeologists have not yet reached a consensus about the precise origins of the Israelites. Some archaeologists regard them as an outgrowth of the Canaanite culture, who were perhaps displaced during the unusually turbulent Late Canaanite Period, living as semi-nomads, until settling the hill areas of Samaria and Judah during the Early Israelite Period.

Alternatively, Israelites are ancient Aramean immigrants from Aram-Naharaim (around the Syro-Turkish area of Mesopotamia). Genetic testing has shown that, throughout the world, modern "Jews [are genetically] more closely related to groups from the north of the Fertile Crescent (Kurds, Turks and Armenians) than to their Arab neighbors." These ancient immigrants from Aram-Naharaim to the Land of Israel lived a semi-nomadic life of commerce and herding with periodic stops for raising crops. They lived on the fringes of the unstable Canaanite society for centuries, acquiring the Canaanite language and material culture, before finally urbanizing across the hill areas of modern Israel around the 13th century BCE.

Jewish/Hebrew Bible period

According to the tradition recorded in the Hebrew Bible's book of Genesis (composed in the 9th/10th centuries BCE), the Israelites descended from Abraham who is called a "wandering Aramean", whose family is associated with Aram-Naharaim, including the ancient places there such as Ur in Iraq, and Haran and Teran in Turkey. After Abraham, the Israelites are said to descend through Isaac, born in the land of Israel, and then through their eponymous ancestor Jacob who is also known as Israel. Israel's sons married wives in the land of Canaan. The Bible also describes a famine time when the Israelites dwelled in Egypt, and following the Exodus returned from Egypt, back to Canaan, in some instances conquering cities of other ethnic groups there, and reclaiming the land God promised them.
Successive waves of migration brought other groups onto the scene. Around 1200 BCE the Hittite empire was conquered by allied tribes from the north. The Phoenicians of Lebanon, were temporarily displaced, but returned when the invading tribes showed no inclination to settle. The Egyptians called the horde that swept across Asia Minor and the Mediterranean Sea the Sea Peoples. The Philistines (whose traces disappear before the 5th century BCE) are presently considered to have been among them, giving the name Philistia to the region in which they settled, located in present-day Gaza.

For further discussion on the very early ethnic history of the region, see:

Monarchy Period (Iron Age II) 1000–586 BCE

With the death of King Solomon around 925 BCE, the Israelites fell into civil war, and the kingdom split into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom was far more wealthy and politically influential, but its monarchy was unstable with frequent intrigue and dynastic changes.

In the relative backwaters of the southern Kingdom of Judah, the Davidic Dynasty alone ruled Judah and its vicinities for centuries until the Persian Period, proving remarkably stable. Several factors contributed to the stability of the southern monarchy. Its kings made a frequent practice of ruling alongside a son in a period of coregency. Gradually, the kings centralized all religious authority to Jerusalem the capital city: to the Temple located next to the king's palace. Unlike El that was perceived as a universal deity in the north, Yhwh was perceived in the south as a patron deity of the nation of Israel, thus worship of other gods equated to treason. Throughout the Davidic Dynasty of the Kingdom of Judah, religious loyalty and loyalty to the king consolidated.

Monarchy of Judah and Edom/Neo-Assyrian Period (Iron Age IIC) 722–586 BCE

Philistine cities, because of their strategic location close to Egypt, were ruled directly by a governor appointed by the Assyrians. In Edom, a series of kings was founded under Assyrian patronage, to keep the Judean kingdom distracted to the south. A number of anti-Edomite passages in the Bible are dated to this period.

Neo-Babylonian Period (Iron Age III) 586–539 BCE

The Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar conquered the (southern) Kingdom of Judah in 597–586 BCE, and exiled the middle and upper classes of the Jews (that is, the citizens of the Kingdom of Judah, consisting mostly of the members of the tribe of Judah but also some members of the other tribes) to Babylonia, where they flourished. Most regard the collapse of the Israelite kingdoms as the beginning of the Jewish diaspora.

Persian Period 539-333 BCE

Rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem

Cyrus II of Persia conquered the Babylonian Empire by 539 BCE and incorporated Judah and Israel into the Persian Empire. Cyrus organized the empire into provincial administrations called satrapies. The administrators of these provinces, called satraps, had considerable independence from the emperor. The Persians allowed Jews to return to the regions that the Bablyonians had exiled them from, and allowed them to mint Yehud coins.

The exiled Jews who returned encountered the Jews that had remained, surrounded by a much larger non-Jewish majority. One group of note (that exists up until this day) were the Samaritans, who adhered to most features of the Jewish rite and claimed to be descendants of the Assyrian Jews; they were not recognized as Jews by the returning exiles for various reasons (at least some of which seem to be political). The return of the exiles from Babylon reinforced the Jewish population, which gradually became more dominant and expanded significantly.

Classical Period

Hellenistic Period 333–165 BCE

In the early 330s BCE, Alexander the Great conquered the region, beginning an important period of Hellenistic influence in Israel.
After Alexander's death in 323 BCE, his empire was partitioned, and the competing Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires occupied various portions of the eastern Mediterranean, including different parts of Israel.

Maccabean/Hasmonean Period 165–63 BCE

Jews restore their sovereignty in the region

The Jews were divided between the Hellenists who supported the adoption of Greek culture, and those who believed in keeping to the traditions of the past, which resulted in the Maccabean revolt of the 2nd century BCE. Jews achieved sovereignty in the region throughout the Maccabean Period, and their Kingdom of Judea controlled most of the region of present-day Israel (without the Negev but with the West Bank, Golan Heights, and parts of the Gaza Strip) and parts of western Jordan.

Late Roman Period II 135–220 CE

Romans join the province of Iudaea (comprising Samaria, Judea proper, and Idumea) with Galilee to form new province of Syria Palaestina

In 135 CE, the costly victory in Bar Kokhba's revolt by Hadrian resulted in 580,000 Jews killed (according to Cassius Dio) and destabilization of the region's Jewish population. The Romans renamed the new territory as Syria Palaestina (Syria Palaestina) to complete the disassociation with Judaea. Jerusalem is re-established as the Roman military colony of Aelia Capitolina; a largely unsuccessful attempt is made to prevent Jews from living there. Many Jews left the country altogether for the Diaspora commnunities, and large numbers of prisoners of war are sold as slaves throughout the Empire.

The Romans destroyed the Jewish community of the Mother Church in Jerusalem, which had existed since the time of Jesus. The line of Jewish bishops in Jerusalem, which started with Jesus's brother James the Righteous (Yaakov Ha-Tsadik) as its first bishop, now ceases to exist. The Romans impose a new line of non-Jewish bishops in Jerusalem. Christianity ceases to be a Jewish movement.

Late Roman Period III 220–330 CE

Known simply as Rabbi, Yhuda Ha-Nasi finalized the Mishna

Amoraic Period (220-470 CE) begins

The use of Hebrew as the spoken language gradually declines in the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba Revolt, becoming negligible approximately 300 CE but surviving as a literary language.

During the Hellenistic, Hasmonean, and Roman Periods, the Jewish Diaspora grew even further. In addition to the large Jewish community in Babylon, large numbers of Jews settled in Egypt, and in other parts of the Hellenistic world and in the Roman Empire. Frequent conflict contributed to Jewish emigration, both as refugees, through deportation, and by reducing economic opportunities in the region. It also led to many deaths among the Jewish population - deaths in battles with the Romans and others, deaths due to massacres, and deaths due to the famine and disease that so often accompany armed conflict. However, during the Byzantine Period, the Jewish population in the north of Israel remained large for several centuries, particullarly in Eastern Galilee. Western Galilee later began to take on a more Christian character ie. Syro-Arameans, Greeks and Romans from the 5th century onward. The coastal plain, central Judea and Southern Samaria had already become largely Pagan. Southern Judea remained mostly Jewish for some centuries and Northern Samaria remained Samaritan until the later stages the first period of Islamic imperial rule.

Byzantine Period 330–638 CE

Byzantines rename the entire geographic area as Palaestina ("Palestine")

The Land of Palestine became part of the Eastern Roman Empire ("Byzantium") after the division of the Roman Empire into east and west (a fitful process that was not finalized until 395 CE).

Around year 390 CE, the Byzantines redrew the borders of the Land of Palestine. The various Roman provinces (Syria Palaestina, Samaria, Galilee, and Peraea) were reorganized into three diocese of Palaestina. According to historian H.H. Ben-Sasson, under Diocletian (284-305) the region was divided into Palaestina Prima which was Judea, Samaria, Idumea, Peraea and the coastal plain with Caesarea as capital, Palaestina Secunda which was Galilee, Decapolis, Golan with Beth-shean as capital, and Palaestina Tertia which was the Negev with Petra as capital.

In year 438 CE, Empress Eudocia allows Jews to return to Jerusalem to live.

The Nabateans roamed the Negev by the Roman Period, and by the Byzantine Period dominated the swath of sparsely populated deserts, from the Sinai to the Negev to the northwest coast of Arabia, the outlands that the Byzantines called the diocese of Palaestina Salutoris (meaning something like "near Palestine"). Its capital Petra was formally the capital of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea. The Nabateans also inhabited the outland of Jordan and southern Syria, improperly called the diocese of Arabia because its capital Bostra was within the northern extremity of the Roman province of Arabia Petrae. The origin of the Nabateans remains obscure, but they were Aramaic speakers, and the term "Nabatean" was the Arabic name for an Aramean of Syria and Iraq. By the third century during the Late Roman Period, the Nabateans stopped writing in Aramaic and began writing in Greek, and by the Byzantine Period they converted to Christianity.

The two diocese of Palaestina proper also became increasingly Christianized. They probably had a Christian majority by the time of Diocletian. Some areas, like Gaza, were well-known as pagan holdouts, and remained attached to the worship of Dagon and other deities as their ancestors had been for thousands of years.

In 613 CE, the Persian Sassanian Empire under Khosrau II invaded Palaestina. Jews under Benjamin of Tiberias assisted the conquering Persians, revolting against the Byzantine Empire under Heraclius in the hopes of controlling Jerusalem autonomously. In 614 CE, the Persians conquered Jerusalem, destroying most of the churches and expelling 37,000 Christians. The Jews of Jerusalem gained autonomy to some degree, but frustrated with its limitations and anticipating its loss offered to assist the Byzantines in return for amnesty for the revolt. In 617 CE, the Persians signed a peace treaty with Byzantines. At that time the Persians betrayed the agreements with the Jews and expelled the Jewish population from Jerusalem, forbidding them to live within 3 miles of it. In 625 CE, the Byzantinian army returned to the area, promising amnesty to Jews who had joined the Persians, and was greeted by Benjamin of Tiberias. In 629 CE, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius marched into Jerusalem at the head of his army with the support of the Jewish population who had received amnesty. Nevertheless, upon entry, the Christian priests in Jerusalem convinced the emperor that God commanded him to kill Jews and therefore his amnesty was invalid, whereupon the Byzantines massacred the Jews in Jerusalems and put thousands of Jewish refugees to flight from Palaestina to Egypt.

In 634 CE, the Byzantine Empire lost control of the entire Mideast. The Arab Islamic Empire under Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem along with the lands of Mesopotamia, Syria, Palaestina, and Egypt.

Islamic Period

Arab Caliphate Period 638–1099 CE

Umayyad Period 638–750 CE

In 638 CE, the Christians of Jerusalem surrendered to the conquering armies of the Caliphate (Islamic Empire) under Caliph (Emperor) Umar, the second of the initial four Rashidun Caliphs.

Umar allowed seventy families from Tiberias in Galilee to move to Jerusalem to live.

In Arabic, the area approximating the Byzantine Diocese of Palaestina I in the south (roughly Judea, Philistia, and southern Jordan) was called Jund Filastin (meaning Division of Palestine, as a tax administrative area , and the Diocese of Palaestina II in the north (roughly Samaria, Galilee, Golan, and northern Jordan) Jund Jordan.

In 661 CE, with the assassination of Ali, the last of the Rashidun Caliphs, Muawiyah I became the uncontested Caliph and founded the Ummayad Dynasty.

After the Arabs conquered the Area, waves of Bedouin garrisons began to settle there.

Period of Abbasids, Ikshidids, Fatimids, Seljuks etc 750–1099 CE

In the 900s, the Fatimids, a self-proclaimed Shia caliphate, took control and appointed a Jewish governor. In the next century, Seljuk Turks invaded large portions of West Asia, including Asia Minor and Palestine.

Crusader Period 1099–1244

After the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 CE, the Crusader Kingdom survived throughout Ayyubid Period until 1291 CE well into Mamluk Period, but here we will consider its peak period, until 1244 CE.

Kingdom of Jerusalem Period 1099–1187

The proximate cause of the Crusades, following 1095, by the Christian European powers was the desire to reconquer the birthland and holy land of Christianity, which had been lost to the Islamic Arab invasion of the Eastern Roman Empire in the 7th century. The Christian forces established the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which lasted from 1099 until 1291, though Saladin reconquered the city of Jerusalem in 1187.

Ayyubid Period 1187–1244

Saladin conquers Jerusalem

The Ayyubid Sultanate, founded by Saladin, controlled Jerusalem and some but not all of the region until 1250, when it was defeated by the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.

Mamluk Period 1244–1517

After the Mongols decimated Baghdad and Damascus in the mid-1200s, the center of Islamic power moved to Cairo, under the Egyptian slave warriors, the Mamluks. They destroyed all towns on the flat coastal plains in order to rid the land of the Crusader presence and make sure it never returned. The main exceptions were Jaffa, Gaza, Lydda and Ramle. The last major Crusader stronghold, Acre fell in 1291, at the Siege of Acre. As a result of this, most trade with the west was curtailed.

In the late 1200s, Palestine and Syria were the primary front for battles between the Egyptian Mamluks and the Mongol Empire The pivotal battle was the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, when the Mamluks, after having brokered a cautious neutrality with the Crusaders (who regarded the Mongols as a greater threat), were able to advance northwards and achieve a decisive victory over the Mongols at Ain Jalut, near Galilee. The Mongols were, however, able to engage into some brief Mongol raids into Palestine in 1260 and 1300, reaching as far as Gaza.

Due to the many earthquakes, the religious extremism and the black plague that hit during this era, the population dwindled to around 200,000 souls. It is during this period that the land began to have an indigenous Levantine Muslim majority and even in the traditional Jewish stronghold of Eastern Galilee, a new Jewish-Muslim culture began to develop.

The Mamluk Sultanate ultimately became a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, in the wake of campaigns waged by Selim I in the 16th century.

Ottoman Period 1517-1917

In 1516 the Ottoman Turks occupied Palestine
The country became part of the Ottoman Empire. Constantinople appointed local governors. Public works, including the city walls, were rebuilt in Jerusalem by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1537. An area around Tiberias was given to Don Joseph HaNasi for a Jewish enclave. Following the expulsions from Spain, the Jewish population of Palestine rose to around 25% (includes non-Ottoman citizens, excludes Bedouin) and regained its former stronghold of Eastern Galilee. That ended in 1660 when they were massacred at Safed and Jerusalem. During the reign of Dahar al Omar, Pasha of the Galilee, Jews from Ukraine began to resettle Tiberias.

Napoleon of France briefly waged war against the Ottoman Empire (allied then with Great Britain). His forces conquered and occupied cities in Palestine, but they were finally defeated and driven out by 1801. In 1799 Napoleon announced a plan to re-establish a Jewish State in Palestine which was mostly to curry favour with Haim Farkhi the Jewish finance minister and adviser to the Pasha of Syria/Palestine. He was later assassinated and his brothers formed an army with Ottoman permission to conquer the Galilee. Turkish rule lasted until World War I.

Jewish immigration to Palestine, particularly to the "four sacred cities" (Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias and Hebron) which already had significant Jewish communities, increased particularly towards the end of Ottoman rule; Jews of European origin lived mostly off donations from off-country, while many Sephardic Jews found themselves a trade. Many Circassians and Bosnian Muslims were settled in the north of Palestine by the Ottomans in the early 19th Century. In the 1830s Egypt conquered Palestine and made some minor improvements and many Egyptians, in particular soldiers, settled there. In 1838 Palestine was given back to the Turks. However, with the advent of early Zionism, just prior to the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Jews had become a small majority in the central Judea region. Many were not Ottoman citizens and were expelled to Egypt at the time that war was declared.

Modern Period

British Mandate Period 1917–1948

The rise of Zionism, the national movement of the Jewish people started in Europe and Russia in the 19th century seeking to create a Jewish state in the Land of Israel (aka Palestine), the ancient Jewish homeland, increased the Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel. By 1920, the Jewish population of Palestine had reached 11% of the population.

In World War I, Turkey sided with Germany. As a result, it was embroiled in a conflict with Great Britain, leading to the British capture of Palestine in a series of battles led by General Allenby. Allenby famously dismounted from his horse when he entered captured Jerusalem as a mark of respect for the Holy City. He was greeted by the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic leaders of the city with great honor.

At the subsequent 1919 Paris Peace Conference and Treaty of Versailles, Turkey's loss of its Middle East empire was formalized. The British had in the interim made two agreements. In the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence there was an undertaking to form an Arab state in exchange for the Great Arab Revolt and in the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to "favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" while respecting the rights of existing non-Jewish communities". These were not necessarily contradictory. The Faisal-Weizman agreement of the same epoch declared the compatibility of Jewish and Arab nationalist aspirations.

McMahon's promises could have been seen by Arab nationalists as a pledge of immediate Arab independence, an undertaking violated by the region's subsequent partition into British and French League of Nations mandates under the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of May 1916 which became the real cornerstone of the geopolitics structuring the entire region. The Balfour Declaration, likewise, was seen by Jewish nationalists as the cornerstone of a future Jewish homeland (and eventual state) on both sides of the Jordan River. Prior to the conference Emir Faisal, British ally and son of the king of the Hijaz, had agreed in the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement to support the immigration of Jews into Palestine and the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, while creating a large Arab state based in Syria. When the conference did not produce that Arab state, and under pressure from Islamists, Faisal called instead for Palestine to become part of his new Arab Syrian kingdom.

In 1920, the Allied Supreme Council meeting at San Remo offered a Mandate for Palestine to Great Britain, but the borders and terms under which the mandate was to be held were not finalised until September 1922. Article 25 of the mandate specified that the eastern area (then known as Transjordan or Transjordania) did not have to be subject to all parts of the Mandate, notably the provisions regarding a Jewish national home. This was used by the British as one rationale to establish an Arab state, which it saw as at least partially fulfilling the undertakings in the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence. On 11 April1921 the British passed administration of the eastern region to the Hashemite Arab dynasty from the Hejaz what later became part of Saudi Arabia as the Emirate of Transjordan and on 15 May1923 recognized it as a state, thereby eliminating Jewish national aspirations on that part of Palestine.

Under the Mandate, Jewish immigration to Palestine increased substantially with a rise in Jewish nationalism, which encouraged Zionism, a return to the ancient land of the Jews.

Palestinian Arab leaders, particularly the Mufti of Jerusalem strongly opposed the immigration and used anti-Semitic demagogery to argue, falsely, that Jews threatened the Haram. The result was, in 1920, 1922 and 1929, the 1920 Palestine riots. In 1936, the British Peel Commission advised that the western part of Palestine be divided between Arabs and Jews. The Arabs then launched the Great Uprising against British rule in an effort to end the immigration. The Jews, for their part, organized militia groups like the Irgun and Lehi to fight the British and the Haganah and Palmach to fight the Arabs. By the time order was restored in March 1939, more than 5,000 Arabs, 400 Jews, and 200 Britons had been killed.

State of Israel: 1948 to present

Soon after World War II, the British decided to leave Palestine. The United Nations attempted to solve the dispute by establishing the Arab state of Jordan (without Jews) and by putting forward the 1947 UN Partition Plan, which further divided the remaining land area between the Arab and Jewish populations. On November 29, 1947, the Jewish Agency, including the Palestinian Jews, accepted the plan, while the Arab states rejected it in protest of the establishment of any independent homeland for Jewish residents of the Middle East. On May 14, 1948, the Jewish population declared independence as the State of Israel. The armies of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria declared war, invaded, but did not succeed. (For a more detailed account, see 1948 Arab-Israeli War). Preceding this military action, Arab radio broadcasts advised Palestinian Arabs to temporarily flee from their homes so as not to be hit by Arab friendly fire in the process of destroying the new Jewish State. During the fighting, additional Arabs fled and in some locations were expelled. Unlike the Jews who were expelled or fled from multiple Arab countries during the same period, these Arab displaced persons were not given citizenship in their neighboring countries (with the notable exception of Jordan), nor independent statehood while under Arab control (1948-1967), and have been kept in large part in refugee camps to this day (see 1948 Palestinian exodus). Israel survived the multi-nation onslaught. The aggression created the dual refugee problems of Palestinian Arabs and the expulsion of Middle Eastern Jews (see Jewish exodus from Arab lands) who had lived in the region for millennia.

What remained of the territories allotted to the Arab state in Israel was annexed by Jordan (Judea and Samaria/the West Bank) or occupied by Egypt (the Gaza Strip) from 1948 to 1967. During this time, Jordan and Egypt did not normalize living conditions or establish an independent state for Palestinian Arabs.

Following military threats by Egypt and Syria, including Egyptian president Nasser's demand of the UN to remove its peace-keeping troops from the Egyptian-Israeli border, in June 1967 Israeli forces went to action against Egypt and Syria, and, after failing to persuade it to stay out of the conflict, Jordan, in what has come to be known as the Six-Day War. As a result of that war, the Israel Defense Forces occupied Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula bringing them under military rule. Israel also pushed Arab forces back from East Jerusalem, which Jews had not been permitted to visit during the prior Jordanian rule. East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel as part of its capital, though this action has not been recognized internationally. The United Nation's Security Council passed Resolution 242, promoting the "land for peace" formula, which called for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967, in return for the end of all states of belligerency by the aforementioned Arab League nations. Since that time, Palestinians have alternatively continued longstanding demands for the destruction of Israel or made a new demand for self-determination in a separate independent Arab state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip similar to but smaller than the original Partition area which Palestinians and the Arab League had rejected for statehood in 1947. In the course of 1973 Yom Kippur War, the attacking military forces of Egypt and Syria were pushed back. Despite being attacked by surprise on Israel's holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt as part of the 1978 Camp David Peace Accords between Egypt and Israel in hopes of establishing a genuine peace. Egypt did not wish to re-gain Gaza; this territory was offered by Israel, but Egypt did not want the responsibility to govern Gaza.

From 1987 to 1993, the First Palestinian Intifada against Israel took place. After few years of on-and-off negotiations, the Palestinian militant groups have launched an orchestrated attack against Israel. This was known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada. The events were highlighted by Palestinian suicide bombing in Israel that killed many civilians, and by Israeli Security Forces invasions and targeted killings of Palestinian militant leaders and organizers. Israel began building a complex security barrier to block suicide bombers invading into Israel from the West Bank in 2002.

According to Israel's unilateral disengagement plan of 2004, it withdrew all settlers and most of the military presence from the Gaza strip, but maintained control of the air space and coast. Israel also dismantled four settlements in northern West Bank in September 2005. Following Israel's withdrawal, some Palestinian groups failed to abide by a 'calming' (de facto ceasefire) negotiated with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Palestinian militia groups fired Qassam rockets into Israel and attempted to smuggle additional weapons and ammunition into Gaza from Egypt. After 2 Israeli soldiers were killed and one was kidnapped by Palestinian militants in the 6th of June 2006, Israel launched a military operation and reentered to some parts of the Gaza Strip.

Following the January 2006 election of the Hamas government, U.S. officials spoke of "hard coup" against the newly elected government and were determined to sow the seeds of civil war to oust the democratically-elected Hamas governnment. Over the 2006 and 2007, the United States supplied guns, ammunition and training to Palestinian Fatah activists to take on Hamas in the streets of Gaza and the West Bank in a U.S. effort that cost tens of millions of dollars. A large number of Fatah activists were trained and "graduated" from West Bank camps..